stepping over broken glass
by iisaaclahey
Summary: five years after graduation, and they finally collide again. / jade&beck, reconnecting.


**notes**: no capitalization is on purpose. i don't know how i feel about this one. tell me how you feel by reviewing?  
**disclaimer**: disclaimed.

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stepping over broken glass  
jade&beck

/

five years after graduation, and jade west is a famous director who has already won several awards for her debut film, and is working on her second one.

five years after graduation, and beck oliver is working part time at a coffee shop in between taking up any miscellaneous roles that he can.

five years after graduation, and they finally collide again.

/

she stops the coffee shop when she's running late on getting downtown to auditions for her film, and he's on one of his shifts. when she reaches the counter, she orders without looking at him. but he knows who she is.

"jade."

she looks up.

/

she ends up giving the role to him.

/

when the film premieres, they walk the red carpet together and every tabloid in the country posts something like _'JADE WEST'S NEW BEAU?'_ and part of her laughs inside when she sees them, because they don't know he's her old beau.

/

beck gets call after call after call for part offerings, and he's so overwhelmed with everything that he calls jade to help him decide which ones to do.

they go out for drinks afterwards.

/

they kiss, both drunk, but kiss none the less.

they're in the papers in the morning.

/

their relationship restarts.

/

they get used to it - the paparazzi, the cameras, the crowds, the tabloids. they get used it - _them_, holding hands and kissing again, bickering again but not fighting, not yet. the get used to it - feeling as if it will last forever.

/

andre harris is an elementary school music teacher and he and beck meet however many times a month to do whatever they feel like doing.

"so," andre says. "you and jade? is it just a paparazzi thing, or is it real?"

beck smiles, nodding. "it's real." andre looks at him and thinks that he's never seen beck this happy, not since the first break up.

"alright, man," he says, then sighs. "just think this over, yeah? be careful."

beck nods but doesn't listen.

/

he should have, though.

he should have known that something would have happened that would break them. but somehow, he had pushed the thought to the back of his mind, never resurfacing until it was too late.

/

it starts with a picture of beck and a co-worker from back when he worked at the coffee shop. the picture made it seem as if they were on a date; beck was frozen while he was laughing, his co-worker, iris, smiling widely.

but jade took it the wrong way.

/

after that, more and more tabloids were headlined with _BECK OLIVER - WOMANIZER _and he kept on trying to not see how much jade was bothered by it.

/

he noticed the little things. like how she trailed after every other woman that walked by, as if a warning or a lookout. like how she held his hand tighter when they went to big events. like how she kissed him more in front of the flashing cameras. (a declaration for her - _HE'S MINE HE'S MINE HE'S MINE STAY AWAY_)

he could not know how much she wanted him. (he could not know how much she wished that the things that bothered her, wouldn't.)

/

the fight was bigger than any of the ones they ever had in school.

things were thrown; things were accused; they called andre, trying to drag him into this but he just hung up after a few minutes.

it continued for a few days, long enough for pictures to be taken of them fighting and headlines to made reading_ TROUBLE IN PARADISE? _and for beck to wish he could go back to the coffee shop days, before he had people following him and his privacy taken away from him.

/

this is the last break up they have. they do not get back together; jade ends up marrying a leading actor in one of her films, beck a young folk musician that is never really known. the only connections they have together is through their friends from hollywood arts, but they do not ask about each other.

instead, they forget and forgive, but never regret.

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**notes**: ew the ending. please tell me what you think by a review?


End file.
